Freyja Handy, Senior Vice President and General Counsel (Europe) at Legends Global has spent more than a decade working in-house in the entertainment industry. She discusses her career with BCL’s In-House managing director, Mark Levine.

Mark Levine: What made you consider law as a career?

Freyja Handy: When I was ten my gran bought me a typewriter, and I went through a phase of writing letters of complaint to companies about their products (my apologies to anyone who worked in the complaints department of Shreddies in the early 90s). I was also quite a strong-minded kid (what you might kindly call “full of character”) and I remember my parents joking that I should become a lawyer to channel my passion for arguing a point.

I went on to study law at University but for a while afterwards I wanted to work in advertising or PR, and worked at a design consultancy in Covent Garden before going back to do the LPC having realised that I missed writing, crafting an argument and working out tactics and strategy.

ML: What do you enjoy most about working as an in-house lawyer?

FH: I think the answer tends to be the same for most in-house lawyers, which is variety and being an integral part of the business.

My experience of private practice was that you’re encouraged to develop a particular niche or expertise. What I love about being in house is that you get to do the opposite because you’re forever facing new, and often weird and wonderful, challenges.

I’ve been at Legends for over 11 years and there are still new things that cross my desk that make me scratch my head. I really enjoy working with colleagues both in the legal team and across the business to find solutions to problems we’ve not encountered before.

ML: What attracted you to work for your current company?

FH: The fact that Legends operates lots of great entertainment venues and the chance of free tickets had nothing to do with it, honest!

In all seriousness, I was Legends’ (then SMG) first in-house lawyer in Europe and I was really excited by the idea of building something from scratch. Eleven-and-a-half years later I’ve gone from sole legal counsel to GC, leading a team of 14 very well regarded, commercially astute and fun people across Legal & Risk.

I’m grateful that our European President recognises that being fun and engaging helps ensure colleagues log on and access the resources we’ve developed.

What initially attracted me, and what has kept me here, is the freedom and trust to build the function and team. I don’t imagine many companies would let me call their legal department “The Legal Beagles”, design a legal front door with Beagles wearing Judges’ wigs plastered all over it, and create our own line of merch (stickers, tote bags and mugs).

I’m grateful that our European President recognises that being fun and engaging helps ensure colleagues log on and access the resources we’ve developed to support them online and actively want to work with us. It’s meant our colleagues are engaged with the team and it’s one of the most effective ways to embed good risk management across the business.

ML: What are the main deliverables of your role?

FH: As part of the senior leadership team, a big part of my role is understanding the business’s wider strategy and identifying how the legal and risk function can support and enable the business to achieve its goals.

My team is structured across UK, Northern Europe, Continental Europe, and Risk, and we come together for Special Projects — M&A, mobilisations, new business bids, legal tech etc – and it’s my responsibility to ensure the team knows what’s in the pipeline and is ready.

Managing the team means taking ownership of key decisions, including exercising good judgement around when to escalate matters to the European President and when to resolve issues myself.

I see it as my responsibility to foster a positive team culture where everyone feels genuinely supported and I’m committed to giving the team opportunities to learn and progress. I’m delighted that two of the people I recruited early on have been promoted to Senior Legal Counsel and Head of UK, and I’m so proud of everything they have accomplished.

ML: What would you pinpoint your success to?

FH: My wonderful (award winning!) team and supportive colleagues across the business. People involve the Legal Beagles early because they genuinely want to. I have never, not once in eleven-and-a-half years, heard anyone call legal a blocker.

That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because we hire brilliant people, invest in them, and encourage a mindset where every challenge is met with a constructive alternative rather than a no.

I have never, not once in eleven-and-a-half years, heard anyone call legal a blocker.

I also encourage the team to suggest ways we can do things better and some of our most effective improvements have come from team workshop sessions. I’m also fortunate to work with a team that genuinely cares, shares knowledge freely, and helps and supports each other when the pressure is on. That sense of collaboration makes even the most demanding days manageable, and it’s one of the things I value most.

ML: What do you feel are the most important character traits of an in-house lawyer?

FH: If you ask AI, it will almost certainly point to a business mindset, resilience, and intellectual curiosity as the traits that matter most. But whenever I’ve recruited, I’ve focused on finding people who are enthusiastic, approachable, and have genuine interests outside of the law.

Technical ability matters but it can be taught. What’s far harder to develop is the instinct to pick up the phone, understand what the business needs, and deliver advice that moves things forward rather than holds them up. Those qualities tend to come from people who are naturally curious, comfortable outside their comfort zone, and genuinely engaged.

ML: When/if you look for new team members, what is most important to you and why – ability or character?

FH: Character, every time. Legal skills can be taught and sharpened; enthusiasm, attitude, and curiosity can’t.

That matters because we’re often the second point of contact a new client has with the business, right after the initial introduction through our new business teams. The impression we make in those early interactions reflects on the company as a whole and signals that Legends is approachable, collaborative, and easy to work with.

 Legal skills can be taught and sharpened; enthusiasm, attitude, and curiosity can’t.

I need lawyers who can read a room and understand which points are genuinely worth pushing back on and which warrant a pragmatic compromise, rather than treating every negotiation as a battle to be won.

ML: What would you say to any lawyer considering a move in-house?

FH: Have a think about what you enjoy the most about being a lawyer. If you like drafting flawless documents and getting stuck into technical detail, private practice will be a great environment for you. The people who thrive in house enjoy a lot of variety, a fast pace, and are comfortable with things being good enough rather than perfect.

If that sounds like you, find a business that genuinely excites you, because you’ll live and breathe it. But perhaps most importantly, you spend more waking hours with your colleagues than almost anyone else, so find a legal team you’ll really enjoy working with (maybe even one with their own merch line!).

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